


in denial

by stilljunhui (acyria)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, M/M, Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 15:13:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11489028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acyria/pseuds/stilljunhui
Summary: Mark was in denial. So was Donghyuck, though. Neither would ever admit to it.





	in denial

**Author's Note:**

> This was requested by somebody on AFF, so I decided to post it here, too.  
> My heart and NCT-ship loyalty still lies with MarkMin, though.  
> I miss Jaemin.

Mark Lee was a good kid. No, really, he can say that with utmost confidence. He never came home late since he hardly went out at night anyway; he got good grades and was usually in the top ranks of their class; he was captain of the badminton varsity team even when he just moved back to Korea a few years ago; he generally got along with everybody. Well, almost everybody.  There’s just one person in the entirety of Neo High School who didn’t like him, and whom he didn’t like back.

He didn’t get along with a certain Lee Donghyuck.

Of course, this bit wasn’t his fault. Clearly Mark’s records showed that he was a good guy. 

Which means that yes, it was definitely Lee Donghyuck’s fault. They’ve been classmates for a solid two years straight, which meant their animosity towards each other has been for that long, too. Mark didn’t even know what he did wrong, but Donghyuck was the first one to initiate dislike towards him. As far as the Canadian boy was concerned, he was just trying to live a normal student life. According to the younger boy, Mark had stolen things from him in the process of doing so.

Such things like being top of the class—Donghyuck was the youngest one in their year since he was accelerated one batch, which meant getting high grades was as easy as pie for him with his so-called whiz kid brain. Ever since Mark came along though, his streak had been exchanged with a sort of rivalry instead. Sometimes, he’d be higher than Mark in some subjects. Sometimes, it would be Mark. It was, honestly, usually Mark. 

Donghyuck couldn’t stand that.

There was also how the younger boy was the captain of the soccer team. Mark didn’t even try and join the soccer team, nor did he go anywhere near them, but for some reason, Donghyuck blamed him entirely when the soccer team lost some of its members. Even more so, when a handful of those lost members ended up in the badminton team. Really, was that still Mark’s fault? He certainly didn’t think so. 

What made matters worse was how they had the same group of friends.

Mark blamed Jaemin for everything. 

Na Jaemin, one year younger, star player of the badminton team (next to Mark, anyway) and also bane of Mark’s existence. He was good friends with soccer star player, Lee Jeno. Which, of course, meant that Jeno was friends with Donghyuck. For some reason, the two decided to completely ignore the rivalry that Mark and Donghyuck had with each other for some sad attempt at friendship. 

Mark thought it was an even sadder affair that it actually worked.

To some extent, they were friends, maybe. They spent lunch together at the same table with the rest of their group of friends—that meant the other foreign transferees, Renjun and Chenle. Also Jeno’s childhood friend, Jisung, who was the youngest of them all. Mark had to admit, it was a good group of friends to have, honestly. If only Donghyuck wasn’t perpetually out to get him.

“Donghyuck, what’s with the angry look on your face?” Jaemin asked with a cheerful, almost teasing smile when the other boy stomped his way back to their lunch table. 

Donghyuck all but slammed his lunch tray down on the table before glaring at Mark.

“Minhyung here got the last juice box. It was my favourite one.”

Mark flinched at the usage of his Korean name. He was fine with it to some extent, but he did tell everyone he met that he preferred being called Mark. Of course, once Donghyuck heard of this, he made it his personal goal to only call Mark by that name. Needless to say, the dislike for the name grew tenfold just because it came from the other boy’s mouth. Still, he was pretty sure he didn’t get the last juice box. There was at least three more left when he got one.

“Did not,” he replied calmly, taking a sip of the juice box for extra measure.

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

“Did _too!_ ”

“Did _not!_ ”  
  
“I said you di—“

“Guys,” Renjun said, intervening before they ended up attracting the attention of the whole cafeteria. “Relax. Donghyuck, did you see Mark take the last juice box?”

“No,” Donghyuck grumbled.

“Mark, did you?”

“I already said I didn’t.”

“Then, there’s no reason to fight,” Renjun said, beaming that he had manage to play peacemaker between the two of them once again. Honestly, he just wanted a quiet lunch without the two fighting, but that was too much to ask for. Beside him, Chenle dropped an extra juice box into his bag. What they don’t know won’t hurt him. Jisung had long since given up on going through a day without the two fighting.

Mark likewise returned to trying to enjoy his lunch in peace. 

He also tried to enjoy the rest of his day in peace, but with Donghyuck in his classes that was pretty much impossible. He could practically feel the younger boy’s hot glares on his back since Donghyuck sat directly behind him, probably still bitter over his juice drink. Typical. They only had an hour of literature left for the day before Mark was free from all of this, despite knowing he had to go through all of it again the next day. 

“Class, since it’s almost Valentines, I’ve decided to give you all something fun as homework! A writing exercise!”

The class groaned—homework was never fun. Mr. Kwon was also bound to give something really hard, knowing him, regardless of whether it was almost Valentines or not. Mark still had to brush up on his writing skills, too. The teacher went on to explain about how some of the best and most dramatic books and dramas ever made revolved around love. Mark agreed to some extent.  Finally, he announced that he wanted the class to write about their ideal types. That was it. Not too hard, right?

Mark thought it was hard.

He didn’t have an ideal type. Did he? He doesn’t think he even currently liked anybody. Plus, he’s been spending Valentines alone for years now. This was just adding salt to the wound.

He continued to think about it even when the bell rang, almost missing the small comment Donghyuck muttered behind him.

“This time I’m getting a higher grade than Mark for sure.”

Rolling his eyes, Mark turned in his chair to face the other boy, “will not.”

“Will too.”

“Will not.”

“Will too! Just watch!”

“Will not,” he said with finality, standing up. Mark offered just the smallest of smirks as he did so, just enough to rile Donghyuck up some more as he watched the other boy. The latter started it, after all. Now he was ending it, and as much as he didn’t want to add more fuel to the fire, it was pretty easy. “Good luck, you’ll need it.”

Maybe he spoke too soon, though. That night, Mark was still caught in a rut as he tried to write something out. He could have written anything and just tricked his way into the ideal type homework, find an idol on the internet and just describe them, but he preferred to take things seriously. He started with a few basics, like how the person must be kind and thoughtful. Immediately his thoughts flew to Donghyuck and how that boy was the opposite of kind and thoughtful.

At least to him, anyway. Donghyuck was pretty okay to other people, apparently.

Mark continued to list some stuff down, like he’d really like someone with a bright smile and happy personality. A mood-maker, always ready to make him laugh. While Donghyuck never outright made him laugh, exactly, he had certainly done enough things for their whole friend group that was the epitome of something funny. It was nice, like that one he pretended to be the principal and almost got caught, if it wasn’t for—

Wait.

Why was he thinking about Donghyuck again?

Well, it was still something. Since Mark can’t seem to rid himself of how much he definitely doesn’t like Donghyuck, maybe he could just describe him instead and be done with it. Not like his teacher would care as long as he wrote it romantically. Large eyes, prominent nose, hair that’s weirdly red somehow— _like a rose_ , sure, that’ll work. He dyed it over the summer. It actually did look nice on him, but of course Mark would never tell him that. 

It took him only a few more minutes before he realized he actually reached the desired word count already. As long as Mr. Kwon doesn’t do something like ask him to read it out loud or something, things should be fine. He’d rather not explain all of this, after all. It’s not like he actually had some sort of unrequited crush on the other boy, anyway. Even if Donghyuck was smart and talented, good at sports, funny, cute— 

“No,” Mark said out loud as if that would help his resolve stop from crumbling. “Absolutely not, Mark Lee.”

The next day, things proceeded as normal. Class, class (bickering with Donghyuck), class, lunch break (bickering with Donghyuck), class, class, and finally, their last class with the stupid homework that Mark just wanted to get rid of. He didn’t even bother replying to the snide comment that was thrown at him by the other boy about how much Mr. Kwon was sure to like Donghyuck’s work best. He would have rewritten his entire homework if he had the time to do so, but it was a bit too late now.

“Alright, class, to further spread the Valentines spirit, let’s get some of you to read another person’s work!”

Definitely way too late now. 

Things happened almost in slow motion. First, there was Mark’s sad attempt at erasing certain parts of his homework—he’d erase all of it, if he could, but he had to submit something. Until Mr. Kwon had walked past his chair, collecting the piece of paper from right out of his grasp, thus leaving him with a full 700 word page about Lee Donghyuck as his homework. Next, there was the subtle and sad attempts that Donghyuck made from behind him to try and not have his homework read out.Of course, because Mr. Kwon was evil, he assured Donghyuck that his will be read first.

Mark figured that was fine. As long as it wasn’t his that was chosen. 

Donghyuck can get all the embarrassment. 

Mr. Kwon settled in front of the class again, a stack of papers in his hand.

“Alright, let’s have this anonymously read instead. I’ve chosen one already. Mark Lee, would you mind reading this out for us? First, make sure it is not your work.”  
  
Mark breathed a sigh of relief knowing that he didn’t have to expose his homework to the whole class, while also feeling slightly sorry for whoever did own the paper he was about to read out. Taking the paper from his teacher’s hand, his eyes flittered to the top of the page to check if Mr. Kwon did in fact, choose Donghyuck’s first. He did. Truly an evil man. Mark suddenly didn’t feel as sorry, looking up from the paper to lock eyes at Donghyuck.

Donghyuck stared back with wide, scared eyes, already expecting it was his. There was something like a blush tinting his cheeks, too. Wow, was his homework that bad?

“My ideal type is someone smart,” Mark began to read. “Someone who might even be smarter than me, somewhat. I like a challenge. It’s fun to bicker with someone like this, too. Also, someone good at sports. Not soccer, but maybe badminton. I would like to learn badminton from this person. Glasses also play a role, since I think I tend to find people with glasses cute. Also—“

He paused. 

Everything sounded a bit too much like him, which he ignored, but the sentence that followed was what really got Mark’s attention.

_The person I like right now is all of these. He’s from Canada._

Looking up from the paper once more to meet Donghyuck’s eyes, Mark couldn’t help but ask incredulously, “you wrote about me?”

“Did not!” Donghyuck shouted back, standing up as he did so.

“You did too.”

“Did not!”

“Did too. Want me to continue?”

“Did n—no, _that’s enough_ , just shut up already,” the younger boy said, finally noticing his sudden outburst. His face was even brighter shade of red now as he sat back down, sinking deeper and deeper into his chair as if that would help the classroom not notice him. Mark just grinned, but obliged, handing the paper back to a rather confused Mr. Kwon. 

Maybe he wouldn’t spend Valentines alone this year, after all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up a lot longer than I thought. I couldn't find a good way to continue it further so I thought I'd leave it at that.
> 
> If you like my work and would like to support me, please consider buying me coffee! https://ko-fi.com/stilljunhui


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